Containers for holding and storing waste and other materials have been known in the art for a long time. A typical container will have a storage space for holding the waste, as well as an opening leading to the storage space which allows the person to deposit the waste in the storage space.
Many communities presently have recycling programs wherein the residents of the community collect and separate items such as paper, plastic, glass and aluminum that they use in their home, office or apartment. As these items need to be separated, people desire to store them in separate waste containers. The requirement of having multiple waste containers in a room, however, creates a cost and space burden for the collector of the items. Thus, there is a need for efficient and economical stackable waste containers that allow a person to separate and store items such as recyclable products.
Plastic stackable one-piece waste containers have been in existence for a long time. These containers, however, suffer from major disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is that the structure of the containers makes them extremely inconvenient to use in a practical way.
For example, when the containers are stacked on top of each other, it is very difficult and often times quite impossible to access and remove the items stored in a container that is beneath another container because the upper containers block or impede convenient access to the lower containers. In order to unload the lower containers, it is frequently necessary to unstack the containers. This procedure is, of course, quite inconvenient and defeats a major benefit of stacked containers.
Thus, traditional containers for waste disposal, as well as any other container of this type, are not suitable for the sorting or disposing of recyclable refuse due to the fact that the items stored in such containers cannot be taken out easily through the side apertures when the containers are stacked up. This is particularly true when the containers are located in a small area in a residential kitchen so that the side apertures of the containers may face the take out orifices of the kitchen area.
The removal of refuse, therefore, especially from the lowest stacked up container, is difficult since the service opening frequently does not reach to the bottom of the container. In some prior art cases, the containers have apertures that are made so high that the refuse could be removed more easily. However, these containers resulted in superfluous empty spaces remaining in the upper parts of the containers. This, in turn, meant that the containers would not be economical in regards to the utilization of the space and the cost to manufacture and use such containers.
Additionally, proper recycling of the earth's limited resources is an increasing concern and a problem that must be addressed. The use of plastics in our society is endemic. While plastic containers can be convenient to consumers and inexpensive to manufacturers, after they are used, they must be disposed of properly. In many instances, plastic containers were dumped into land fills or otherwise disposed of in an environmentally unfriendly manner.
Some communities have now requested that their residents collect and store the used plastic containers for recycling. The recycling of these materials will only be effective, however, if there is a market for recycled plastics. One problem with recycled plastics is that the market is not as developed as it is for glass and aluminum. Thus, it is critical to find new uses for recycled plastics. The present invention provides such a use.
Furthermore, many grocery stores and supermarkets commonly supply consumers with paper, plastic or polyethylene bags for holding groceries. Such bags are also used by consumers to provide a disposable receptacle for other items, both edible and inedible. These paper, plastic and polyethylene bags frequently have handles that make it easier for the consumer to transport the groceries.
The bags are usually received free from the vendor or merchant as a convenient means of carrying the customers' purchases from the store generally to the purchasers' car, and then to the purchasers' home. After removing the purchases from these bags, however, the customer usually has a problem as the bags present the issue of proper disposal. Thus, there is also a need for a container that is able to use these bags in a practical and efficient manner so that the bags are not merely thrown away. Once again, the present invention satisfies this need.
There are several types of conventional trash containers proposed in the prior art. These containers, however, suffer from many disadvantages and do not provide the novel improvements of the present invention as disclosed herein.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,328 entitled "Delivery Containerfor Perishable Foods" was issued to Sashi on Nov. 12, 1968. This patent involves upper and lower continuous, four sided members held together by four pairs of struts arranged in an "X" pattern. The ends of the strut members are mounted in slots in a manner permitting the upper and lower continuous members to be pulled apart when the device is to be used, or pushed together at the time of storage.
The Sashi configuration, however, necessarily utilizes a number of carefully formed components that could not be produced inexpensively, nor fitted together except by the employment of a sizable amount of hand labor. Thus, the container disclosed in Sashi is expensive to manufacture, expensive to purchase and difficult and inefficient to assemble.
Another prior art container is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,958 entitled "Sort and Cycle Bin" and issued to Gabert et al. on Jun. 9, 1992. This patent concerns a bin that involves a plurality of horizontally oriented and vertically spaced apart components with a plurality of removable containers within the compartments. Each compartment contains hooks and loops for the containers. The compartments are arranged in subjective patterns for sorting materials.
The bin disclosed by Gabert et al. is not very practical, however, as it requires a large amount of floor space. Thus, unlike the present invention, the bin is costly to manufacture and buy, is not environmentally friendly and is not substantially maintenance free. Additionally, the bin disclosed by Gabert et al. is not capable of holding plastic handled bags in an open condition that cooperates with open vertical surroundings.
Another prior art container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,174 entitled "Specialized Ear-Handled Holder-Container" and issued to Quintero on Feb. 2, 1993. This patent involves a specialized piggy back container and second holder container with ear handles to receive one or more trash bags with bag handles. The bag handles are looped over the ear handles. However, the device disclosed by Quintero necessitates the use of two separate non-stackable containers. Furthermore, the container represents a device that uses excessive materials which consume valuable space in a home, office or apartment as well as lead to excessive costs to manufacture and buy.
A stackable container is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,747 entitled "Stackable Crates" and issued to Aho on Dec. 4, 1979. This patent involves a container that is intended to be used to transport and store milk. The container has a main and bottom portion. The main portion has front, rear and side walls that are open to the bottom. The bottom portion is of the grating type, detachable and pivotable, allowing it to be turned upwards and left in the upturned position so that the goods can be taken out through the tops of the empty upper crates when several of the crates are stacked up. Apertures on the front and/or rear walls of the crates, when stacked up, make a combined, almost full height aperture which also allows the goods to be taken out sideways from the stacked crates.
The configuration of the container disclosed in Aho suffers from the absents of handles, ears, or a pair of tabs that are capable of holding paper or plastic bags with handles in the open position. Thus, the container in Aho lacks any convenient means of storing and removing loose material, such as recyclable waste. Additionally, the construction and design of this container results in excess bulk, thereby increasing the cost and inefficiencies of the container.
The objective of the present invention is to provide for a stackable waste holder that eliminates the many drawbacks of the prior art containers described above. A further objective of the present invention is to create a stackable waste holder that allows for the sorting, holding and disposing of recyclable refuse, such as paper, glass, plastic and aluminum in a convenient fashion.
To this end, the present invention permits the sorting, holding and disposing of recyclable refuse in plastic bags with handles that are secured to the holders. The bags can be taken out easily from the holders while the holders are stacked up and, if desired, adjacent to regular trash containers, so that the holder's orifices, and thus, the bags containing the refuse, are accessible to the consumer, whether they are in a kitchen of a house or apartment, or in a place of business.
The present invention evolved as a means of overcoming the disadvantages and expense of the prior art containers described above. The present device is particularly able to be produced very economically, efficiently and in a variety of materials and colors, depending upon the particular desires of the consumer. Furthermore, the invention is environmentally friendly. The holder provides a use for plastic bags that otherwise would be thrown away. Additionally, the frames of the holder can be manufactured out of recycled plastic, thereby providing a market from such materials.